John Ridley Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EXCLUSIVE: Veteran TV executive and producer Michael McDonald (American Crime) is finalizing a deal to join Amazon Studios’ executive ranks as Head of the Comedy and Drama Development team in the US SVOD TV Development and Series – Wholly Owned division led by Nick Pepper, I hear. He will oversee development of all wholly owned comedy and drama series. Amazon Studios declined comment.

After his quotes about writing for Lost appeared in a Vanity Fair book excerpt Tuesday, veteran scribe Javier Grillo-Marxuach doubled down via social media by sharing more of his experience on the ABC drama.

EXCLUSIVE: Trevor Jackson, known for his role as Aaron Jackson, the male lead opposite Yara Shahidi on Freefom’s Grown-ish, has signed with APA for representation.

Netflix has unveiled its 2023 feature film slate, consisting of 49 titles. 

EXCLUSIVE: C. Henry Chaisson, writer of Keri Russell-fronted film Antlers and Apple series Servant, is turning Nick Cutter’s underwater thriller The Deep into a series for Amazon.

Five Days at Memorial, the grim tale about the disastrous events that took place at a New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina, finished its eight-episode run today on Apple TV. Here, Executive Producer Carlton Cuse (Locke & Key, Lost), who together with John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) adapted the series from the nonfiction book by Sheri Fink, explains what it was like to chronicle the story of healthcare professionals like Dr. Anna Pou (Vera Farmiga) and incident commander Susan Mulderick (Cherry Jones), who faced overwhelming odds to save patients at Memorial Medical Center.

Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans in the late summer of 2005.The eight-episode series, premiering Aug. 12 on Apple TV+, is based on Sheri Fink’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name chronicling the hellish five-day timespan at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans as Katrina ravaged the city, breached levees, submerged most of the area underwater and forced the hospital and LifeCare — a private health facility on the 7th floor — to evacuate its patients with deadly results that no one could have foreseen … or, perhaps, even avoided.The series opens on Sept. 11, 2005, 13 days after Katrina first made landfall, when 45 bodies were discovered in the abandoned hospital’s chapel, with no explanation of what happened to them or how they got there.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThe aftermath of Hurricane Katrina so precisely crystallized a set of seemingly unfixable problems with this country that it’s surprising TV, in an era of re-examining recent history, is only now getting around to depicting it in fictionalized form. It’s not for lack of trying: Ryan Murphy had previously proposed multiple takes on the story, one with Annette Bening starring as Louisiana Gov.

Carson Burton Crowds at the DGA theater in Los Angeles were buzzing on Monday night when Chris Pine made a surprise appearance on the red carpet. Pine came out to the “Five Days at Memorial” premiere to support his dad, Robert Pine, in his newest acting endeavor.The father-son duo posed together before Chris made his way into the theater, letting his father walk the line to talk to the press.For Robert, his decision to get involved with this project came down to the script. “John Ridley and Carlton Cuse wrote [the script], and you just don’t get good writing like that all the time,” Pine told Variety.

“Five Days at Memorial” is about as bleak as television gets. The series is meant to be that way; based on a non-fiction book by Sheri Fink, it’s set in a hospital during the direct aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Apple TV+ is exploring the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in its latest limited series, “Five Days at Memorial.”The series is based on actual events, chronicling the impact of the hurricane — which quickly became one of the deadliest natural disasters in the country’s history — and its aftermath on Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans. When the floodwaters rose, power failed, and heat soared, exhausted caregivers at the hospital were forced to make decisions that would follow them for years to come. In a trailer released Wednesday, nurses, doctors, and residents brace for the hurricane as it races toward the city.

Over the years since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, we’ve seen quite a few films and TV projects dedicated to telling that story. However, maybe none of which will be as harrowing as the upcoming Apple TV+ series, “Five Days at Memorial.” READ MORE: ‘Black Bird’ Trailer: Taron Egerton & Ray Liotta Star In New Apple TV+ Prison Series As seen in the teaser for “Five Days at Memorial,” the series tells the story of the, well, five days after Katrina hit the coast, but the action is completely contained to the Memorial Hospital where doctors and nurses tried their best to save people’s lives with limited resources.

Apple TV+ has set global premiere dates for Five Days at Memorial, its limited series from John Ridley and Carlton Cuse, and darkly comic thriller series Bad Sisters, starring Sharon Horgan.

EXCLUSIVE: Comic book and graphic novel publisher IDW has unveiled nine new original comic book projects set for release beginning in July as part of a new initiative. While the focus is on creating new comic book IP, following publishing of the comics, the IDW Entertainment Group will work to potentially develop the IP for film, television and other entertainment mediums the way the company has done in the past with such titles as Wynonna Earp and Locke & Key.

EXCLUSIVE: Carlton Cuse is returning to Amazon Studios. The prolific, Emmy-winning writer-producer, who co-created and was showrunner for the first two seasons of the Prime Video Original Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, has signed a first-look deal with Amazon Studios. Under the multi-year pact, he will develop and produce projects to premiere on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

EXCLUSIVE: Audio Up, the podcast studio behind series from the likes of Anthony Anderson and James Ellroy, is ramping up its moves into TV and film.

EXCLUSIVE: Dorian Missick (Shirley), Pamela Reed (Outside In), Amanda Warren (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and Jim Klock (The Underground Railroad) will round out the cast of Prime Video’s The Burial, which is currently in production.

EXCLUSIVE: Micaela Wittman, the actress who recently made her feature directorial with the satirical mockumentary Clairevoyant, has signed with Untitled Entertainment for management. She will be represented there by Katie Rhodes and Dannielle Thomas.

EXCLUSIVE: Lance Reddick (John Wick franchise), Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea), André Holland (Passing), Terrence Howard (Empire), Christina Jackson (Swagger), Michael Cherrie (Home Again), Dorian Missick (For Life), Amirah Vann (Underground), W. Earl Brown (Deadwood) and newcomer Ethan Jones Romero have joined the cast of Shirley, an upcoming film from Participant and Regina King’s Royal Ties Productions, which has landed at Netflix.

Ephraim Sykes, the Tony-nominated actor of Broadway’s Ain’t Too Proud and Hamilton, will join Brandon Victor Dixon, Lillias White and Walter Bobbie in the world premiere Off Broadway musical Black No More in January.

a tweet by comedian Jenny Yang. “Just watch this movie trailer without knowing the title and let the feeling move you,” she wrote.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticTony winner Leslie Odom Jr. (“Hamilton) has been nominated for two Oscars.

What lines would you cross to be with your soulmate? That’s the question posed by the time-travel romance epic “Needle in a Timestack.” The movie’s first trailer gives a taste of what happens to four people put in that situation. READ MORE: Fall 2021 Movie Preview: 60+ Must-See Films “Needle in a Timestack,” based on a short story of the same name by Robert Silverberg, follows a blissful married couple, Nick and Janine.

EXCLUSIVE: Joe Carroll has joined the cast of Apple TV+’s Five Days at Memorial, from John Ridley, Carlton Cuse and ABC Signature. He joins Vera Farmiga, Cherry Jones, Adepero Oduye, Julie Ann Emery, Cornelius Smith Jr. and Molly Hager.

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Gaston (The Leftovers) has been cast alongside Vera Farmiga, Cherry Jones, Adepero Oduye, Julie Ann Emery, Cornelius Smith Jr. and Molly Hager in Five Days at Memorial, Apple TV+’s limited series from John Ridley, Carlton Cuse and ABC Signature.

EXCLUSIVE: Molly Hager (Waitress) is set as a lead alongside Vera Farmiga, Cherry Jones, Adepero Oduye, Julie Ann Emery and Cornelius Smith Jr. in Five Days at Memorial, Apple TV+’s limited series from John Ridley, Carlton Cuse and ABC Signature.

Emmy and Tony Award winner Cherry Jones is set to star alongside Vera Farmiga in Five Days at Memorial, Apple TV+’s limited series from John Ridley, Carlton Cuse and ABC Signature.

Julie Ann Emery (Preacher, Better Call Saul) is set to star opposite Vera Farmiga, Adepero Oduye and Cornelius Smith Jr. in Five Days at Memorial, Apple TV+’s limited series from John Ridley, Carlton Cuse and ABC Signature.

Ethan Hawke and John Leguizamo will star in an Off Broadway streaming production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot, directed by Scott Elliott and premiering online Tuesday, May 6.

EXCLUSIVE: Scandal alum Cornelius Smith Jr. has been tapped as a lead opposite Vera Farmiga and Adepero Oduye in Five Days at Memorial, Apple TV+’s limited series from John Ridley, Carlton Cuse and ABC Signature.

Adepero Oduye (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Pariah) has been tapped as a lead opposite Vera Farmiga in Five Days At Memorial, Apple TV+’s limited series from John Ridley, Carlton Cuse and ABC Signature. The project reunites 12 Years a Slave co-star Oduye with the Oscar-winning movie’s writer Ridley.

Vera Farmiga has been tapped as the lead in Five Days At Memorial, Apple TV+’s limited series from John Ridley, Carlton Cuse and ABC Signature. The project, which chronicles events in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, reunites former Bates Motel star Farmiga with the Psycho prequel’s co-creator/executive producer Cuse.

Regina King is having a pretty great year and a half, isn’t she? Over her already-great career, she starred in numerous films and was already a household name, as an Oscar winner, when she landed the lead in “Watchmen.” However, the popularity of that show (and the awards recognition she received) opened her career up even more. And then you have her directorial debut, “One Night in Miami…” which is poised to make King an Oscar darling, only adding to her success.

Angelique Jackson Regina King is set to star in and produce “Shirley,” the feature film biopic about Shirley Chisholm, America’s first Black congresswoman.The film, produced by Participant, will be written and directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker John Ridley, with production expected to begin later this year.

Also Read: Danai Gurira to Star in Film of Pioneering Presidential Candidate Shirley Chisholm“Shirley Chisholm’s fearless determination has been an inspiration to so many of us, and with this film we hope to inspire many generations to come,” Regina King said in a statement to TheWrap.